Queer Evensong offers safe worship space

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This article was published 17/02/2023 (945 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Creating a safe place to worship for LGBTTQ+ people is the goal of a service Sunday in downtown Winnipeg.

The service — possibly the first of its kind in the province — is being organized by Theo Robinson, a transgender male and regional pastor for the Interlake Shared Ministry, and Andrew Rampton, rector at Holy Trinity Anglican Church.

Queer Evensong starts at 5 p.m. at Holy Trinity (256 Smith St.).

Robinson serves churches in Selkirk, Teulon, Arborg, Lundar and Riverton through the ministry, which is operated jointly by the Anglican Diocese of Rupert’s Land and the Manitoba and Northwest Ontario Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. He came up with the idea because queer people often “don’t feel safe” in a church context.

The service is “for those who are hurting, who have been pushed away by their church, who don’t feel accepted there as a person, who have been told they are wrong in God’s eyes, that they shouldn’t exist,” he said.

Rampton, who identifies as gay, will help lead the service, which he described as “singing service, featuring evening prayers.”

Evensong, he said, is “a lovely thing in the Anglican tradition,” but non-Anglicans are welcome to attend.

“There is no requirement to participate in the sacraments, people can just attend and observe, just sit and let it wash over you.”

As for what makes the hour-long service queer, Robinson said it will feature inclusive language, avoid unnecessary gender terms and is being planned and led by queer people.

Everyone is welcome, he said.

Despite the open invitation and special effort to be inclusive, Robinson and Rampton acknowledged many queer people may find it hard to go into a church.

These are people “who may come with hurts and trauma from past experiences in churches, with lots of hurt in their past,” Robinson said.

He and Rampton want them to know the service will be “underlined by the belief we are made this way, we believe God made us this way, there is not something wrong with you,” he said.

The theme for the service will be transfiguration, focusing on the transfiguration of Jesus, when he went with three of his disciples to a mountain where his face began to shine like the sun and his clothes became miraculously white.

For Rampton, that biblical event can also be “symbolic of the need for a transfiguration in the way of thinking by some Christians about LGBTTQ+ people,” and also a transfiguration in thinking for those LGBTTQ+ people who have been told by churches “they are wrong and broken.”

If the service goes well, and response is positive, the two can see trying it again.

“We need more safe worshipping spaces,” Rampton said, adding “we may not get everything right this time, and for that we apologize in advance, and we will learn from it.”

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